Quiet Time Probs…

Whenever I talk about reading the Bible, one of the things that immediately comes back to me is people say they have trouble with their “quiet time.” I understand most people aren’t going to be reading the Bible just for fun, picking it up randomly throughout the day. If you are that kind of person, that’s so awesome, but you are a rare bird. Most people in order to read the Bible, they have to have a particular time they do it. We call this a “quiet time.”

Most Christians are encouraged to have a quiet time, and very few Christians do, because they aren’t easy. And Christians that start quiet times, a lot of times don’t continue in them because it’s easy to break the habit.

You know the story of the guy who was struggling with his quiet time and he finally got down on his knees in prayer and said, “God, I am just so sorry. I meant to talk to you this morning but something came up.” And God says “I know, it was your sheets.” Haha!

It’s hard to get up and have that quiet time. I do really encourage people to do them in the mornings. If they can! If you do a quiet time in the morning, it has the potential to change the rest of your day. When you’ve absorbed in the Word of God, and taken time to pray through that, it’s going to effect the way you treat the rest of the day.

Mornings are best. Jesus did mornings. It’s hard to beat Jesus.

He got up very early. I’ve talked about that on other posts I’ve done. He went and prayed and meditated. I would say to the true night owl, like you never go to bed before midnight or before 1:00 in the morning, then do it at night. The time you are most alert, refreshed, and available to God, where you are not going to be distracted. If you are a night owl while every body else is asleep, nights are fine. Way better than not doing one at all. But I do mine in the mornings and I like doing them.

If you are going to be a morning person, I want to give you just a couple of practical tips about overcoming this problem with quiet time.

1. You have to get to bed on time. It’s really important.

I typically am an early riser. I get up about 4:00 am on most days and do a little quiet time, I try to go to the gym around 5:00, and be home by 6:00. I know that pastors only work one day a week, so we can have more crazy schedules like that.

We work way more than that 🙂

But still, I have to get to bed early if I am going to do that. I always ask myself a question when I am struggling to want to go to bed. The older I get, the more often I’m tempted to stay up for some reason. The question is simple: Is what I’m doing more important than my quiet time?

Is what I’m doing right now more important than my quiet time?

Sometimes, the answer is yes. Something is going on in the church that is an emergency. I am at the hospital at 11:00 at night, and I’m going to be there until midnight. I probably am not going to do a 4:00 am quiet time. I can miss a quiet time and God still loves me. But most of the time, I am watching a rerun of something and I need to go to bed.

Ask yourself that question.

2. Get up immediately. When your alarm goes off, just get up.

You don’t have to pray about having a quiet time. Just do it. You’re never going to suffer from having time with Jesus and you don’t ever have to ask God if it’s His will for you to spend time with him. It’s a stupid, and insulting thing to do. Don’t lay in bed saying, “Lord, do you really want me to meet with you. Oh, you don’t? Okay, Great!” You know, that’s a blasphemous prayer.

Don’t pray that. Just get up when your alarm goes off.

3. Be aware of quiet time robbers.

If you’re going to use your phone like I suggested last blog post, the YouVersion app, you cannot open your e-mail app. You cannot open Facebook. You have to have those things closed because the moment you start reading something that is going to change your life, I promise you, Satan is going to send a cute video to you by somebody’s Facebook. They didn’t know they were doing. I’m telling you, Satan knows what he is doing and it is going to distract you. You’ve got to make sure you’re focused and technology is really, really difficult for that.

Scripturally speaking because a lot of this is very practical, Deuteronomy 17:19 shows the man that I want to be and it says

“Scripture shall be his constant companion. He must read from it every day of his life so that he will learn to respect the Lord, his God, by obeying all of His commands.”

In other words, if we are not in the Bible enough, there is just no way that we could ever be who God intended for us to be. So being in the Word and having this quiet time is so key to living a life that Christ intended. If you have real questions about this, I want to encourage you to e-mail me. Talk to me, have a conversation with me about this. I would love to talk to people about this!

jason.lineberger@ignitechurch.com you can e-mail me about those questions and I probably will call you back if you leave a phone number because I’d love to connect with you. I want to help you overcome these limitations that are keeping you from being as close to Jesus as possible. Hit us up, I promise we will answer you and I hope you are having very meaningful and deep quiet times that will change your life, your day, your family, and your work.

3 comments

Jason–I really needed to hear this today. I am guilty of sometimes saying I need one more minute of rest. Where do you suggest to start reading the Bible from the beginning or some place else? I am a Christian but I know I need to read the word more.

Hey Deborah! I would suggest starting in the books of John and then go through the book of Acts. This progression goes through Jesus’ life and then goes into the life of the disciples after Jesus returned to Heaven. It is a good couple of books to help challenge us in our walks with Christ and help push us closer to Him! Thank you for asking!

I just want to say: SOOO many churches use ONLY the NT to teach from. The OT, they use just the ‘fun’ or “memorable’ “stories” to teach from. I appreciate that you use all the bible, for ALL the word of God is good for the soul.

AND yes, it is so easy to get distracted….!!!! Mind over matter! AND Pray, before you begin your time with GOD, that HE will protect you from those distractions… That he will send a covering over you that you can easily ignore any that come up that are NOT important….